| Yareban | |
|---|---|
| Musa River | |
| Geographic distribution | Southeastern peninsula ofPapua New Guinea: Oro Province |
| Linguistic classification | Trans–New Guinea
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | yare1250 |
TheYareban orMusa River languages are a small family ofTrans–New Guinea languages spoken near theMusa River in the "Bird's Tail" (southeastern peninsula) of New Guinea. They are classified within theSoutheast Papuan branch of Trans–New Guinea.
The languages are,
Barijian is suggested by lexicostatistics in Dutton (1971).
The only pronouns which are known in enough languages to reconstruct arena 1sg anda 2sg, which are common to all Yareban languages.
Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:[2]
| *m | *n | |||
| *pʰ | *tʰ | [*s] | *kʰ | *ʔ |
| *b | *d | [*dz] | [*g] | |
| *w | *ɾ | *j |
*s and *dz were acquired through loans, but may have already been present in the protolanguage. *ʔ and *g may have been allophones.
Vowels are *a *e *i *o *u.
Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as:[2]
| sg | du | pl | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1excl | *na | *ewa | |
| 1incl | *uwa | *i[j]a | |
| 2 | *a | *ja | |
| 3 | *dawa | *ema(wa) |
Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:[2]
| gloss | Proto-Musa River |
|---|---|
| head | *bo-tai |
| hair/feather | *idi |
| ear | *ome |
| eye | *nai-tai |
| nose | *iboʔo |
| tooth | *ni[ʔ]o |
| tongue | *meana |
| foot/leg | *buɾi |
| blood/salt | *iwa |
| bone | *tai |
| skin/bark | *ope |
| breast | *ama |
| louse | *uʔa |
| dog | *kua |
| pig | *boɾo |
| bird | *gasiɾa; *ada |
| egg | *baka; *uɾimi |
| tree | *ana |
| man/person | *e[ʔe]me |
| woman/wife | *aweta |
| sun | *eweaka |
| moon | *maɾabe; *sakaɾa |
| water | *adua |
| fire | *inaʔa |
| stone | *oma; *gebiɾo |
| path | *daʔaba |
| name | *ibi |
| eat/drink | *it- |
| one | *demu |
Yareban reflexes ofproto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:[3]